Do Stock Photo Sites Pay Enough to Justify the Aggravation?

[William Baroo]

I don't know if I would call myself an aspiring pro, but I saw someone on the web suggesting uploading photos to stock sites in order to get passive income. Is this actually worth the effort? I have no interest in becoming a professional photographer, so there is no way I would open a studio or pay for advertisements, but if I could get even a couple grand a year for uploading shots I'm going to take anyway, I wouldn't mind doing it.

 

[RAZKY]

I don't know if I would call myself an aspiring pro, but I saw someone on the web suggesting uploading photos to stock sites in order to get passive income. Is this actually worth the effort? I have no interest in becoming a professional photographer, so there is no way I would open a studio or pay for advertisements, but if I could get even a couple grand a year for uploading shots I'm going to take anyway, I wouldn't mind doing it.

The competition today is fierce - no matter how talented you may be (that's the easy part), to make it pay at all you need to produce a tremendous volume of what editors want, when they want it. About the only way to know if it's for you is to give it a go - no harm done if you become discouraged. Good luck!

 

[webestang64]

A pro-photographer friend of mine tried this a few years ago. He uploaded about 3000 photos to various stock house sites and sold none. He said for ever shot he had listed there were 1000's of similar shots to chose from, just way too saturated. He did wind up selling some of his work on Etsy as digital downloads.

 

[DigiFilm]

The pay is a pittance, pennies per use. The more your stuff gets used on a given site, the more you can make per use.

One way to try and increase income is to upload the images to multiple sites, but you'll also find the highest paying sites require you to sign an exclusivity agreement.

I've thought about/looked at it several times, and keep coming up with the same answer: "Meh."

 

[JoeW]

The answer to your question is basically "no."

You can make money from stock. But here is what needs to happen. Either you need to have a system (like software to generate key words--a critical element) and you put up thousands and thousands of submissions (I don't mean junk, I mean most of your stuff gets accepted) and because you've got a system you can do 50-70 photos in a day. Think of the post-production process for dealing with 1,000 photos from a convention you just shot--you need to be that kind of systematic and efficient.

Or you get lucky. You have a theme or idea and it turns out to be hot. For instance, you have a photo and it gets used as a viral meme and so the series with that model or object becomes a "must use" photo. Or you shoot a series about dealing with a pandemic and it gets posted a week before a new type of pandemic emerges. Or you do one on dealing with terrorism and a week later the US Capital gets bombed. So anticipating trends and events can be one way that you can make money from stock--assuming no-one else decided to submit 400 photos on that same issue or topic.

But if you're thinking "I have a hobby, let's submit 100 photos of mine I like and make some money"--nah, ain't happening. For instance, you're going to Europe--right? So you're going to take all of these street photos of cute couples or historic landmarks. You'll be expected to submit model releases with IDs. And property releases showing you have a permit to shoot commercial photography of that old Italian chapel or German stone bridge.

 

[Tinstafl]

It might be better to open a patreon site and publish there. You would get more traction but you have to have a nice niche or teach something or portraits that people will pay to see.

 

[klementovichphoto]

It's only worth it if you are already shooting images that can be sent into a stock site for re-sale.
Doing a full production just to send into a stock agency is not worth it. Sometimes an image will sell for a couple hundred dollars but most images are selling for pennies to 20$ per usage.

 

[Kwillmorth]

In looking into this myself, I can offer my own opinion on the topic. Here are my top 8 takeaways, briefly:

1.) Generic images that are similar to other existing content are not worth the effort required to offer.

2.) Lifestyle images with people, accompanied by model releases, are in demand, particularly of life events (babys, wedding, anniversary, office events), earnings are hit and miss.

3.) Location specific images are of low demand per location, but may as a whole collection produce good sales.

4.) Studio and captured images that convey a message without words, express an emotion, etc. are in high demand, if they are well done, clean, and look sincere (fake models looking distraught far less interesting than an actual instance caught.)

5.) Images of patterns, backgrounds, colorful motion, etc... are in demand, but do not pay a lot, and is a highly competitive space.

6.) Submit to as many sites as you can, as none will pay much individually.

7.) B-roll, either as companion to stills, or stand alone, will pay more and realize greater success than any stills only offering. Video is the fastest growing demand today.

8.) Don't quit your day job or rely on these listings for primary income. Those who do make a living from this work are few and have been at it for a very long time with massive libraries on offer. Soliciting local customers for photo assignments will pay more and lead to more work, more reliably than stock image offering.

I have a strategy I am working on for some stock image creation, but not seeing it as anything more than a side hustle to my main effort elsewhere.

 

[Jeff15]

I have over many years sold 8 photographs but have not made enough money to tell the tax man ...

 

[JoeW]

I'm going to add a few comments. The information I've gotten from a couple of stock photo sites (I attended webinars on submitting stuff) was that they're more interested in video these days. And they're also generating AI in some cases. I have a bunch of photos I've submitted that were accepted. The most I ever made from a photo (multiple sales) was a total of $1.75.

 

[dstreetphoto]

As other posters have said, no. There are just to many photos all vying for the same space and on top of that you have to contend with the bane of many a creative, AI. One thing I am looking at is turning my photos into an ebook which I intend to sell through Kindle Direct. The advantage of going down this route is that the space isn't as saturated and there is more room to differentiate yourself and your work.

 

[21limited]

I once had some images picked up by sites that displayed images from around the web. In the end, I had almost 700,000 views of 12 images, but not one inquiry.

Most of my photographic income has been from craft sales. (Most of the rest from friends who bought images off my walls.) I built my own booth and display easles. For my effort I probably made about 5$ an hour, but I did enjoy getting out talking photography with people. At the craft shows we were charging between $5 ((4x6) and $300 (30x20” canvas). (Any kid who was asking mommy to buy him or her a 4x6 print got it for free, a little fawn we’d photgraphed was popular.)

We enjoyed it for three times, but once it wasn’t new anymore, no, it wasn’t worth the aggravation. I’d still suggest people give it a go once or twice. It so interesting watching people interact with your photos. Bit of advice though, if you have lots of good prints to sell, look for craft shows that attract 20,000 shoppers or more. Our best show probably had 2000 people walk through, and we sold over $2,000. The math is impressive, but, that show (20,000 people) costs $500 to get in and you’ll have to put up enough money to pre-print multiple copies of your best images, which you’ll be stuck with if you don’t sell. A friend has almost 1000 images from his craft show days. Our philosphy was don’t print anything we won’t dsiplay in our home if it doesn’t sell.

One of my favourite stories from those days, A guy stopped and looked at one of my favourite photos, a lake scene near sunset. He said “It almost has a spiritual quality. “ He turned up bit later with his wife. She looked at it, frowned an said “no.” He turned up 15 minutes later with a big garbage bag, bought the print, stuffed it in the bag, and said “I’ll put it up in my man cave."

We used to run guided canoe trips for phtographers and others in the summer…. so we were paid for those, and I always told clients “If I see a good image, we’re stopping until I’ve captured it.” Many of them brought their own cameras, so it was never an issue. Here’s my wife T setting up.
2012-craft-show by Norm Head, on Flickr

One of my buddies who lives near by makes most of his income from these shows. He has a whole route he’s set up through the years, a different show every weekend in the summer and into the fall.